BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS
B R I T I S H D R AW I N G S A N D WAT E R C OL O U R S FR OM THE 18T H TO THE 20T H CENTURIES GUY PEPPIATT | NICHOLAS SHAW | HARRY MO ORE - GWYN
GUY PEPPIATT NICHOLAS SHAW HARRY MOORE-GWYN
B R I T I S H D R AW I N G S A N D WAT E R C OL O U R S FR OM THE 18T H TO THE 20T H CENT URIES To be exhibited at Ground Floor, 6 Mason’s Yard, Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BU
GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART
NICHOLAS SHAW THE ART OF EXPLORATION AND ADVENTURE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7930 3839
Tel: +44 (0) 7734 059604
or +44 (0) 7956 968 284
nick@nicholasshaw.co.uk
guy@peppiattfineart.co.uk
www.nicholasshaw.co.uk
www.peppiattfineart.co.uk Front cover: Andrew Nicholl R.H.A. (1804-1886)
View of Clifden, Connemara, with the Twelve Pins beyond, Ireland [cat.37b] Opposite page: William Swainson (1789 London1855 New Zealand)
The Ear of Dionysius, Syracuse [cat.62] Back cover: Maurice Lambert, RA (1901-1964)
Parachutists, 1919 [cat.91]
HARRY MOORE-GWYN BRITISH ART Tel: +44 (0)7765 966 256 harry@mooregwynfineart.co.uk www.mooregwynfineart.co.uk
Introduction Guy Peppiatt, Nicholas Shaw and Harry Moore-Gwyn are very pleased to present our first combined Winter catalogue of British Drawings and Watercolours. The exhibition will run from the end of November 2022 with remaining works being on show in the gallery into January 2023. The exhibition encompasses a remarkable depth and variety of works on paper by British artists working over some three centuries. Guy's section includes a range of drawings and watercolours mainly dating from 1780 to 1880. Many are landscapes of British subjects as well as views of Ireland, Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, the Crimea and India. Many are by well-established names but others are high quality works by lesser known artists. In Nick’s section there are fine examples of works by British artists who took these traditions to other parts of the world to explore their artistic possibilities, some even introducing foreign artists to these practices. Harry’s section links the work of the Pre-Raphaelites with the early twentieth century figurative tradition, in turn leading to the post-War abstraction of two of British art’s greatest figures: Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. British drawings and watercolours represent astonishing value for money in today’s market, enabling the range of pricing we have been able to offer here: from around £1,000 to over £15,000. We very much hope there is something that appeals to you from the catalogue and we look forward to welcoming you in the gallery over the next few months. Harry Moore-Gwyn Guy Peppiatt Nick Shaw
The following catalogue contains a combination of artworks from the stock of Guy Peppiatt Fine Art (GPFA), Nicholas Shaw (NS) and Harry Moore-Gwyn (HM-G). They are marked at the top of each page; please therefore direct any enquires as appropriate. The drawings are for sale from receipt of the catalogue. A price list is included.
Opposite page: Benjamin John Merifield Donne (1831-1928)
Cacti at Nice, France [cat.46b]
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G U Y P E P P I AT T F I N E A RT
3
GPFA
[cat.1a]
Charles Gore (1729-1807) Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore, Italy Signed lower right: Lac Magiore Isola Bella vue du Cote du Sud en entrant dans la Bage venant de Seste. 1795 C Gor., inscribed upper centre: Lago Maggiore and further inscribed lower left Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper watermarked with a fleur de lys, with a pen and black ink border 15.8 by 31.4 cm., 6 ¼ by 12 ¼ in. Provenance: Michael Ingram (1917-2005)
Artist, sailor, boat designer and traveller, Charles Gore was born in Lincolnshire, the son of a retired Hamburg merchant. After attending Westminster School, he initially embarked on a career in the family’s bank, Gore and Mellish, but retired on his marriage to the heiress Mary Cockerill in 1751. Precipitated by Gore’s wife’s delicate health, the Gore family, (Charles, Mary and their three surviving daughters, Emily, Eliza and Hannah Ann), spent many years living and travelling throughout Europe, including to France, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. In 1773 the family moved to Lisbon, before settling in Italy between 1774 and 1778. They stayed mainly in Rome but travelled extensively throughout the region, undertaking frequent lengthy cruises along the Ligurian and 4
Tyrrhenian coasts. Gore returned to Italy again in the summer of 1794 travelling around the Italian Lakes and to Naples. Isola Bella is the largest of the islands in Lake Maggiore, owned by the Borromeo family. Initially a rocky outcrop inhabited by fishermen and with two small churches, Carlo III began an ambitious building programme to create a palazzo in 1632. Work continued under subsequent generations developing and expanding the palace and large terraced pleasure gardens. There is a watercolour showing the island from a distance, also dated 1795, in the British Museum and a further watercolour showing the island from a similar angle in the Yale Center for British Art.
GPFA
[cat.1b]
Charles Gore (1729-1807) Small trading Vessels beached and drying sails at low tide by Jersey pier Inscribed upper centre: Jersey Pier – Pen and grey ink and watercolour on two sheets of laid paper joined 28.4 by 19.4 cm., 11 by 7 ¾ in.
In her biography of her father’s life, Emily recollected that whilst the family was living in Southampton, between 1757 and 1773, Gore spent time sailing around the coast of Britain, visiting the Channel Islands and the northern French coast on several occasions. This drawing depicts cutter-rigged sloops with carved work at the stem-head and seem to be of carvel (smooth-hull) plank-on-frame construction, not clinker. There is a drawing in Weimar museum which is inscribed ‘Snail cutter taken in camera Jersey 1773’. 5
GPFA
[cat.2]
Samuel Atkins (c.1765-1808) Shipping off Dover Signed lower left: Atkins Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil 10.4 by 30.4 cm., 4 by 12 in. Provenance: Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, 30th January 1991, lot 61
Atkins specialised in marine watercolours and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1787 and 1808. Between 1796 and 1804 he was at sea visiting the East Indies and China. This ‘long thin’ format is typical of his work.
6
GPFA
[cat.3]
Francis Wheatley, R.A. (1747-1801) A Woman washing clothes outside a Cottage Pen and grey ink and watercolour, oval 17.6 by 22.7 cm., 7 by 9 in.
Born the son of a tailor in Covent Garden, Wheatley studied painting at Shipley’s School and at the Royal Academy Schools from 1769. Redgrave’s Dictionary recalls ‘In early life he made many theatrical acquaitances, and was led into extravagance and debt.’ To avoid his debtors he fled to Dublin with the wife of the watercolour painter
John Alexander Gresse where he achieved success as a portrait painter. On his return to London, he specialised in genre paintings in oil and watercolour, many of which were engraved. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1791 and his series ‘Cries of London’ was popular as engravings in the late 1790s.
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GPFA
[cat.4]
Joseph Farington, R.A. (1747-1821) A Farmhouse in a Clearing Signed lower left: Jos. Farington Pen and brown ink and grey wash with original washline mount 31 by 45.4 cm., 12 by 17 ¾ in. Provenance: Michael Ingram (1917-2005); With Lowell Libson Ltd, 2006; Private Collection, UK; With Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, 2018; Private Collection, UK Exhibited: Lowell Libson, Watercolours and Drawings, 15th November to 8th December 2006, no.2
Farington initially trained under Richard Wilson, before enrolling at the Royal Academy on its formation. He established a reputation as a landscape painter and notable draughtsman and was sought after for producing drawings and watercolours that could be used by printmakers to fill demand for increasingly popular topographical publications. Although he never held a senior post at the Royal Academy, he was actively involved in its affairs, serving on various groups and committees including the influential hanging committee. He was elected A.R.A 1783 and R.A. just two years later. The diary that Farington only began in July 1793 but maintained assiduously until his death, is one of the most important sources for information on the art world of the period. 8
GPFA
[cat.5]
Giovanni Battista Borra (1712-1786) The Roman Aqueduct near Mytilene on the Island of Lesbos, Greece Inscribed on original washline mount: Aquaduct at Mytelina [sic] Pen and black ink and watercolour over traces of pencil on laid paper 19.5 by 30.8 cm., 7 ½ by 12 in. Provenance: Robert Wood (1717-1771) as part of an album; By descent in the Neville-Rolfe family until the 1970s
Borra studied architecture under Barnardo Vittore (1704-1770) in Turin and in either late 1749, or early 1750, he was employed by the antiquarian Robert Wood, as official draughtsman for Wood’s expedition to explore the classical architecture of Asia Minor. The resulting publications, ‘The Ruins of Balbec’, 1753 and ‘The Ruins of Palmyra,’ 1757, with plates after Borra’s careful, measured drawings, formed the first accurate record of the roman antiquity of the Eastern Mediterranean. As such they proved enormously influential on the development of the Neo-Classical style which became dominant in Britain in the second half of the 18th Century. The present drawing which originally formed part of an album in Robert Wood’s collection, was sold in the 18th Century to the Neville-Rolfe family, with whom it remained until the 1970s, when the family sold the majority of the drawings to Paul Mellon (these are now in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven), retaining only a few of coloured sheets, such as the present work, until these too were dispersed. The still impressive, ruined aqueduct was originally built c.200 BCE to bring water from Lake Megali Limni in the foothills of Mount Olympus, 28 km to the city-state of Mytilene. 9
GPFA
[cat.6a]
John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749-1831) Glyder Bach from Llyn Ogwen, North Wales Inscribed on part of old backing: Glyder Back…sometimes called the columnar mountain./ looking to it across Llyn Ogwen.Camarthonshire Watercolour over pencil on laid paper 14.7 by 21.8 cm., 5 ¾ by 8 ½ in.
Smith visited Wales for the first time in 1784 and made a total thirteen trips between 1784 and 1806. Glyder Fach is the sixth highest mountain in Wales and lies in the Glyderau mountain range in North-West Wales. Llyn Ogwen separates the Glyderau from the mountain ranges of Snowdonia and the Carneddau. Legend tells that Sir Belvedere cast Excalibur into Llyn Ogwen following King Arthur’s final battle and the sword lies there still, guarded by the Lady of the Lake.
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GPFA
[cat.6b]
John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749-1831) Nant Y Benglog and the approach to Llyn Ogwen, North Wales Inscribed on part of old mount: June 14 1790/On the near approach to the Benglog, & Llyn Ogwen, by Co..nor & the Old Road,/previous to the formation of the new communications, through Nant Francon/Caernarvonshire Watercolour over pencil on original mount 14.3 by 21.8 cm., 5 ½ by 8 ½ in.
Nant y Beglog is a valley between the long ribbon lake, Llyn Ogwen and Capel Curig. It is interesting to note that Smith comments on the ‘Old road’ as the A5 now runs through the valley.
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GPFA
[cat.7a]
John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749-1831) A Mill on a river in Wales Signed and dated lower left: JSmith 1785 Watercolour over pencil 21.1 by 34.1 cm., 8 ¼ by 13 ¼ in. Provenance: Dudley Snelgrove, F.S.A. (1906-1992), his sale, Sotheby’s, 19th November 1992, lot 199
[cat.7b]
John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749-1831) View of Dolgelly, North Wales Watercolour over pencil 12.6 by 21 cm., 5 by 8 ¼ in. 12
GPFA
[cat.8]
Samuel Hieronymous Grimm (1733-1794) A Street in Dieppe, France Signed lower centre: S.H. Grimm fecit 1771 Pen and grey ink and watercolour heightened with gum arabic on laid paper with pen and ink border 28 by 38 cm., 11 by 15 in.
Born in Switzerland, Grimm, settled in Paris in 1765, to study in the studio of Jean-Georges Wille. He remained there for three years before moving to London. During his time with Wille, Grimm undertook several sketching tours including possibly to Dieppe. He also travelled to England from Dieppe in 1768. The present watercolour which appears to show a street in the area of Dieppe known as Le Pollet, with the Château de Dieppe in the distance, was probably based on on-the-spot sketches made by the artist. Grimm often worked in small sketchbooks and these studies were then used as an aid-memoire whilst working up his finished studio watercolours. As with the present work, he would sometimes return to these sketchbooks years later. There is another watercolour of a street in Dieppe in the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, dated 1770.
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GPFA
[cat.9]
Joshua Gosselin (1739-1813) The Gateway of Nottingham Castle Pen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil on laid paper 10.6 by 17.5 cm., 4 by 6 ¾ in. Provenance: By descent from the artist until sold at Phillip's, 5th November 1999, lot 57, one of three
Gosselin came from an old Channel Islands family and joined the Guernsey Militia in 1758, rising to the rank of Colonel in 1789. Apart from his military career, he was an accomplished artist, naturalist and antiquarian. A large collection of his work was sold at Phillip’s in 1999. Nottingham Castle was founded by William the Conqueror in 1068. It has played a key role in many of the leading events of the country. It was one of King John’s last strongholds when he rebelled against his brother King Richard and was where Charles I raised his standard, thus declaring war in England. It was a royal palace by 1330, until James I 14
sold it to the Earl of Rutland. In 1831, the castle was torched by rioters angry with the way the Duke of Newcastle had voted against wider emancipation. It stood as a ruin for nearly half a century, until work began restoring it and turning it into the first municipal art gallery outside London.
GPFA
[cat.10]
Charles Tomkins (1757-1823) Winchester Tower, Windsor Castle Pen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with bodycolour on laid paper 17.9 by 25.2 cm., 7 by 9 ¾ in.
Winchester Tower, or Wykeham Tower, as it is sometimes called are both names after William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England, who was in charge of the construction of the Upper Ward of Windsor Castle under Edward III, begun in 1357. The tower stands at the beginning of the North Terrace. Charles was the elder son of landscape painter, William Tomkins and established himself as a topographical artist, print maker and publisher. His younger brother, Peltro, was also a gifted draughtsman and printmaker. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1773 and 1779 and
published a number of topographical volumes including ‘Eight views of Reading Abbey’, 1791, which was expanded and reissued in 1805 and a ‘Tour in the Isle of Wight’ in 1796. There is a similar watercolour with the same figures and composition by fellow topographical artist and print maker, Thomas Malton, in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven. Malton and Tomkins would have known each other and produced engravings for inclusion in the same publications.
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GPFA
[cat.11]
Samuel Prout O.W.S. (1783-1852) A view of Launceston Castle with the tower of St Mary’s Magdalene in the distance Indistinctly inscribed, lower centre: Launceston and further inscribed upper right: Grey Pencil and grey wash 22.2 by 36.2 cm., 8 ¾ by 14 ¼ in. Provenance: Private collection since circa 2000
Launceston Castle was begun soon after the Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror’s half-brother. Richard, Earl of Cornwall expanded and developed the castle in the 13th Century and it served as his administrative headquarters. After his death, it became a prison and served as the base for the Royalist defence of the county. The distinctive tower of St Mary Magdalene was built during the late 14th or early 15th Century. It was probably initially intended as a watch tower and was only joined onto the church during alterations. Samuel Prout was born in Plymouth and moved to London in 1802, at the invitation of the antiquarian and topographer John Britton, to produce drawings of antiquarian subjects and copies after other artists. 16
He had been encouraged in his interest in art by his headmaster, who also encouraged Benjamin Haydon. Ill health, which was to plague him throughout his life, forced him to return to Devon between 1805 and 1808, before he felt able to return to London. Stylistically this drawing dates from this early period. A related wash sketch ‘Dartmoor Prison during construction’, dated to 1807, is in Plymouth Museum (see Richard Lockett, Samuel Prout, 1985, p.28, ill. fig.I). There is a watercolour of Launceston Castle in the Plymouth Museum executed shortly before he returned to London in 1808, as well as an oil of a distant view of Launceston, in the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro.
GPFA
[cat.12]
William Payne (1760-1830) Cottages by the Sea, Devon Signed lower left: W. Payne Watercolour with original washline mount 12.6 by 16.7 cm., 5 by 6 ½ in.
Payne was the son of a London coal merchant and first exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1776. He was taught by George Haines, Chief Draughtsman at the Tower of London and maybe also Paul Sandby. In 1783, Payne was sent to Plymouth, in his capacity as a draughtsman to the Board of Ordnance, to survey the city’s defences. He spent the subsequent six years mapping the coast and producing watercolours of the surrounding area. An innovative and experimental artist, he adopted the use of a grey pigment for his foregrounds, which still bears the name ‘Payne’s Grey’, as well as
dragging the side of the brush through pigment and employing vigorous loops to depict foliage amongst others. By 1790, Payne returned to London to establish himself as an artist and drawing master, rapidly becoming the most sought-after drawing master of the period. Also from this time, he undertook regular sketching tours in search of suitable subjects for both him and his pupils, travelling widely especially in the West Country.
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GPFA
[cat.13]
John White Abbott (1763-1851) Leather Tor from Narrator Meavy, Devon Signed with initials, dated and inscribed, verso on the original mount: Leather Tor, from Narraton Meavy, Devon/JWA Augt. 14. 1834. Pen and ink and watercolour over traces of pencil 15 by 23.8 cm., 5 ¾ by 9 ¼ in.
The landscape around Leather Tor has changed dramatically since White Abbott drew this work. It now sits at the north-east end of Burrator reservoir, which was built between 1892 and 1898 with one of the two dams constructed to form the reservoir, sited across the River Meavy. It seems from the position of Sharpitor on the summit of the hill, with Leather Tor slightly below and to the left, that White Abbott was on the banks of the Meavy slightly to the north-east of what is now Burrator reservoir.
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GPFA
[cat.14]
John White Abbott (1763-1851) A Wooded Track, Widecombe in the Moor, Devon Signed with initials, inscribed & dated, verso: Widdecombe – Devon/JWA. July 18. 1792. Pen and brown ink and watercolour 23.2 by 18.6 cm., 9 by 7 ¼ in. Provenance: With The Fine Art Society, London, 1952; Harry Lawrence Bradfer-Lawrence F.S.A. (1887-1965); Private Collection Exhibited: London, Fine Art Society, May 1952, no. 10; The Arts Council of Great Britain touring exhibition, The Bradfer-Lawrence Collection, 1953, no. 4
A drawing of a slate quarry at Widecombe by White Abbott, also dated 18th July 1792, is in the Yale Center for British Art (B1975.3.1082). Widecombe in the Moor is a village on Dartmoor twelve miles west of Newton Abbot. This drawing belonged to Harry Bradfer-Lawrence F.S.A., an antiquarian, who formed a notable and wideranging collection especially of charters, seals, manuscripts and books. He started out as a land agent and then became a brewer, intitally at Hammonds Brewery and becoming chairman of United Breweries until 1962. The British Museum, The Fitzwilliam Museum and the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, number items from his collection amongst their holdings. 19
GPFA
[cat.15]
John Henderson (1764-1843) The Harbour and Customs House, Weymouth, Dorset Watercolour over traces of pencil 10.4 by 15.6 cm., 4 by 6 in.
Henderson was an amateur artist and early patron of Girtin and Turner who he met through Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833) who was a neighbour on Adelphi Terrace, London. Girtin and Turner copied Henderson’s original watercolours, many of Dover, in the mid 1790s. Two other Weymouth views by Henderson are known, one in the Fitzwilliam 20
Museum and the smaller at the Yale Center for British Art (B1975.3.856). Greg Smith has suggested that these Weymouth views by Henderson may be the basis for a view of Weymouth Harbour by Girtin (see Greg Smith, Thomas Girtin – an online catalogue, no. TG0911).
GPFA
[cat.16]
John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) A figure resting in a ruined Tower Signed lower left: J.S. Cotman Pencil 28.4 by 21 cm., 11 by 8 in. Provenance: Basil Taylor (1922-1975); With Ackermann and Johnson, where bought by the present owners
Architecture is central to Cotman’s work and in particular the looming, isolated tower, standing in a landscape, seems to have particularly engaged the artist throughout his career. Here the atmosphere of the ruined tower, framing the seated figure is overtly romantic.
This drawing was formerly in the collection of one of the most eminent scholars of British art, Basil Taylor, who wrote widely on the subject and is regarded as being responsible for encouraging the great American collector, Paul Mellon’s interest in British art.
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GPFA
[cat.17a]
William Callow, R.W.S. (1812-1908) Fishing Boats at Sea Signed lower left: W Callow Watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour and scratching out 17.6 by 25.1 cm., 7 by 9 ¾ in.
[cat.17b]
William Callow, R.W.S. (1812-1908) Fishing Boats under Sail Indistinctly signed lower right: W Callow Watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour and scratching out 17.6 by 25 cm., 7 by 9 ¾ in.
These early marine works by Callow date from circa 1840.
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GPFA
[cat.18]
Samuel Owen (1768-1857) Shipping near Dover Signed on plank lower centre: S OWEN 1827 Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour 13.6 by 20.8 cm., 5 ¼ by 8 ¼ in. Provenance: Private collection, UK
Owen specialised in painting marine subjects but was less concerned with the accuracy of his depiction and more with the atmosphere and mood of his subject matter. Many of his watercolours were reproduced as engravings.
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GPFA
[cat.19a]
Robert Hills O.W.S. (1769-1844) Study of the head of an Orangutan Watercolour over traces of pencil Image size 26.5 by 23.4 cm., 10 ½ by 9 ¼ in. Provenance: With P & D Colnaghi, London; Barbara and Ernest Kafka
The first orangutan arrived at London’s Zoological Gardens in the early 1830s, however, it was ill and only survived three days. In November 1836, a young female orangutan was acquired from a sailor; she survived six months. Following that a succession of young orangutans were housed in a corner of the heated giraffe house. Darwin spent a great deal of time studying them. Queen Victoria and Price Albert visited in May 1842. The Queen wrote, ‘The Orang-Outang is too wonderful preparing and drinking his tea, doing everything by word of command. He is frightfully & painfully and disagreeably human.’
[cat.19b]
Robert Hills O.W.S. (1769-1844) Study of the head of a Giraffe Watercolour over traces of pencil Image size 9 ¼ by 7 ½ in. Provenance: With P & D Colnaghi, London; Barbara and Ernest Kafka
The first giraffe to arrive in England, was one presented to George IV in 1825. The giraffe caused a sensation and was a popular subject with artists and caricaturists, as well as inspiring interior design, fashion and hair styles, with women wearing their hair piled up high ‘à la girafe’. On 24 May 1836, four giraffes arrived at London’s Zoological Gardens, accompanied by their handlers. There is a further watercolour by Hills of a new born giraffe with its mother painted in 1835 and widely disseminated through the engraving that was also produced. 24
GPFA
[cat.20]
George Richmond, R.A. (1809-1896) Portrait of a Gentleman Half-length seated in a chair, holding a letter Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic 56.7 by 44.1 cm., 22 ¼ by 17 ¼ in.
This relates stylistically to, and is in the same format as, a portrait of Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth dated 1835 in the National Portrait Gallery. 25
GPFA
[cat.21]
William James Müller (1812-1845) The Rialto Bridge from the Albergo Leone Bianco, Venice Inscribed lower right: The Rialto/Fr.m Lion Bianco/Oct.r 1834 Pencil 27.8 by 42.8 cm., 10 ¾ by 16 ¾ in. Provenance: Bought at Agnew's, February 1980; By descent until 2022 Exhibited: London, Thos. Agnew & Sons, 107th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours, February 1980, no.172 as by Clarkson Stanfield
This impressive drawing dates from Müller’s seven month tour of the Continent in 1834-5 in the company of his fellow artist George Arthur Fripp (1813-1896). They arrived in Venice on 29th September and stayed for two months hiring a gondolier Jacobo, to take them round the city. An early biography of Müller claims that ‘To visit Venice had been the goal of Müller’s amibition for months, if not years. Most thoroughly did he enter heart and soul into the wondrous time-worn beauty of this floating city’ (N. Neal Solly, Memoir of the Life of William Müller, 1875, p.39).
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This is a view looking north-east along the Grand Canal taken the Albergo Leon Bianco on the corner of Calle Cavalli and the Riva del Carbon, with the tower of San Bartolomeo prominent to the right of the Rialto Bridge. An oil of this subject by Müller, based on the present sketch, was sold at Sotheby's on 26th March 2004, lot 89. Turner stayed in the Albergo Leon Bianco in 1819 and a sketchbook in the Tate Gallery includes a drawing of this view (D14406 Turner Bequest CLXXV 48a). He also painted an oil of this subject now in the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
GPFA
[cat.22]
James Holland, O.W.S. (1799-1870) A Rainbow over Oporto, Portugal Signed with initials lower right and inscribed: Low Water/S.t Johns - Sept JH 1837. Oporto Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour on buff paper 16.9 by 24.8 cm., 6 ½ by 9 ¾ in. Provenance: Bought from the Albany Gallery, London, March 1979; By descent until 2022
James Holland was commissioned by Robert Jennings to visit Portugal in the summer of 1837 in order to produce a series of drawings for engravings for Jennings’ forthcoming publication, The Tourist in Portugal (published in 1839). Holland initially intended to visit Oporto in early July, but became ill and had to return to Cintra to convalesce. He returned to Oporto to finish his explorations of the city in late August, leaving in early September to return to England. He is one of the only British artists to visit Portugal in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Fascinated by the effects of light, the subject must have captivated the artist’s imagination. Holland produced another view of Oporto from St John’s which formed the basis for one of the engravings in Jennings’ publication. His Portuguese views are generally considered his best works.
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GPFA
[cat.23]
David Cox (1783-1859) James and Georgina Cooper outside Ashley Lodge Inscribed on old label attached to the backboard: Ashley Lodge/with/James & Georgina Cooper/by David Cox Watercolour over pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour 22.7 by 33 cm., 9 by 13 in. Provenance: Lord Dormer
The present watercolour dates from the 1820s and appears to depict a couple enjoying their grounds, however, despite an old label fixed to the reverse of the frame, naming the figures as James and Georgina Cooper, it has not so far been possible to identify either the figures or the house. There is an Ashley Lodge in Epsom, which is a similar architectural style to that depicted here but nothing to link the figures depicted in the foreground with the house.
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GPFA
[cat.24]
David Cox (1783-1859) View of Llangorse Lake with the Black Mountains beyond Signed lower left Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and stopping out 21.7 by 32.5 cm., 8 ½ by 12 ¾ in. Provenance: With J.W. Vokins, London; With G.M. Lotinga, New Bond St., where bought November 1947; By descent until 2014; With Guy Peppiatt Fine Art; Private Collection, UK
Llangorse is the largest natural lake in South Wales, situated in the Brecon Beacons about four miles east of the town of Brecon. This watercolour dates from the mid 1830s.
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GPFA
[cat.25]
David Cox (1783-1859) Redcoats riding the Pass of Nant Francon Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour 22.3 by 33.8cm. 8 ¾ by 13 ¼ in. Provenance: With Spink & Son, London; Private collection
This relates closely to the print published in Roscoe's ‘Wanderings in North Wales’, 1836, p.132, pl. XI.
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GPFA
[cat.26]
Peter de Wint O.W.S. (1784–1849) Windmill on the Thames, Battersea Watercolour over pencil 25.9 by 34.8 cm., 10 ¼ by 13 ¾ in. Provenance: Private collection since circa 1995
There were at least three windmills in the Nine Elms area of Battersea in the first part of the 19th Century. Randall’s Mill, depicted here, sat on the bank of the Thames, by the creek of the River Effra, and was the largest of the mills. It had been used to grind corn from neighbouring farms from at least the 1770s until it was demolished c.1836. The artist depicted Randall’s Mill in several watercolours including a slightly smaller watercolour of the mill from a similar viewpoint in the collection of Winchester College.
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GPFA
[cat.27]
David Cox O.W.S. (1783-1859) Figures on a path in North Wales Watercolour 18 by 16.4 cm., 4 ¾ by 6 ¼ in. Provenance: With the Fine Art Society, London
This is a typical late Welsh landscape by Cox dating from the late 1840s or early 1850s.
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GPFA
[cat.28]
John Varley (1778-1842) A Bridge in a Classical Landscape Signed lower left: J. Varley 1822 Watercolour heightened with bodycolour, stopping out and gum arabic 12.7 by 17.5 cm., 5 by 6 ¾ in. Provenance: With Thos. Agnew and Sons, circa 1950
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GPFA
[cat.29]
Franz Joseph Manskirsch (1768-1830) The Vale of Neath, South Wales Signed lower right: F.J. Manskirsch Watercolour over pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour and stopping out 30.1 by 40.8 cm., 11 ¾ by 16 in.
This is a view looking down the valley of the River Neath in South-West Wales. A watercolour by Thomas Hornor (1785-1844) taken from the same spot is in the British Museum. Signed watercolours by Manskirch are rare although examples of his work are in the British Museum, the Ashmolean and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. German born, the artist worked in England between 1796 and 1805 and his work is influenced by Thomas Girtin (1775-1802).
34
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[cat.30]
Joseph Murray Ince (1806-1859) The Radcliffe Camera, St. Mary's Church and Brasenose College, Oxford Signed lower left: J.M. Ince 1833 Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with bodycolour 27 by 20 cm., 10 ½ by 7 ¾ in. Provenance: With Thos Agnew & Sons (no.31950)
Ince was born in the Welsh borders and was a pupil of David Cox in Hereford from 1823 until 1826 when he moved to London and began to exhibit at the Royal Academy. By 1832 he was living in Cambridge working as an architectural draughtsman but in the mid 1830s he returned to Presteigne, where he remained for the rest of this life. 35
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[cat.31]
Thomas Charles Leeson Rowbotham Junior (1823-1875) Tantallon Castle, Scotland, the Bass Rock beyond Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour 23.9 by 31.7 cm., 9 ¼ by 12 ½ in.
Tantallon Castle is a ruined 14th century fortress which sits on a rock in East Lothian looking over the Firth of Forth. In the distance is the Bass Rock, a romantic island a mile off shore which has frequently featured in literature. It once housed a castle but now has a large gannet colony as well a lighthouse. Rowbotham was taught by his father Thomas Leeson Rowbotham Senior (1782-1853) and eventually succeeded him as drawing master at the Royal Naval School, Greenwich. He travelled widely in Britain and the Continent.
36
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[cat.32a]
Edward Tucker (c.1825-1909) Dover Cliffs after the Storm Signed lower left: E. Tucker Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and scratching out 22.2 by 33.1 cm., 8 ¾ by 13 in.
[cat.32b]
Edward Tucker (c.1825-1909) View of Dover, Shakespeare's Cliff beyond Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and scratching out 22.2 by 34.1 cm., 8 ¾ by 13 ¼ in. 37
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[cat.33]
Thomas Miles Richardson Junior, R.W.S. (1813-1890) On the Beach at Tynemouth, Northumberland Signed lower left: T.R. Jr 1836 Watercolour heightened with bodycolour and scratching out 21.3 by 31 cm., 8 ¼ by 12 ¼ in.
Richardson Senior was referred to as ‘The Father of Fine Arts in Newcastle’ during his lifetime. Having been apprenticed to a cabinet maker, he gave it up to succeed his father as master of St. Andrew's Charity School in Newcastle in 1806. He started working as a drawing master during this period and gave up teaching to devote himself to art in 1813. In 1822 he helped set up the Northumberland Institution for the Promotion of Fine Arts and its success led to the Northern Academy of Arts in Newcastle in 1828. Tynemouth sits on the north bank of the river Tyne where it enters the North Sea, eight miles east of Newcastle.
38
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[cat.34]
William Callow, R.W.S. (1812-1908) View of Melrose Abbey from the banks of the river Tweed Signed lower left and indistinctly dated Watercolour over pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour and scratching out 36.5 by 54.9 cm., 14 ¼ by 21 ½ in.
Callow visited Melrose in the summer of 1843 on his way home from Edinburgh. This watercolour is likely to be one of two Melrose views exhibited at the Society of Painters in Water-colours, either ‘Melrose Abbey from the Banks of the Tweed’ (1847) or ‘Distant View of Melrose Abbey’ (1849).
39
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[cat.35]
Henry Barlow Carter (1804-1868) A Horse and Cart in a Winter Landscape Signed lower right: H.B. CARTER. ‘46 Watercolour over traces of pencil 28.9 by 44.6 cm., 11 ¼ by 17 ½ in.
Carter was a marine and landscape artist and drawing master who settled in Scarborough, Yorkshire in the 1830s. He produced numerous views of Scarborough and the surrounding area with the work of J.M.W. Turner being an obvious influence.
40
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[cat.36]
Edmund Gustavus Müller (1816-1888) Eastern Landscape Signed or inscribed verso: E.G. Muller Brown washes heightened with scratching out and stopping out 23.5 by 34 cm., 9 ¼ by 13 ¼ in. Provenance: Alfred Edmund Hudd (1846-1920) of Clifton, Bristol
Edmund Müller was the younger brother of William James Müller (see no. 21) and the son of the curator at Bristol Art Gallery. He trained as a doctor and later turned to painting. He exhibited from 1850 to 1871 but never achieved the success of his brother. This is typical of drawings produced by the Bristol Sketching Society and is likely to date from the 1830s. The Sketching Society was an informal gathering of artists who would meet in the evenings to produce brown wash drawings on a set subject.
41
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[cat.37a]
Andrew Nicholl R.H.A. (1804-1886) The Carmelite Friary, Rathmullan, County Donegal, Ireland Signed lower right: A Nicholl RHA Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and scratching out 33 by 51.1 cm., 13 by 20 in.
Rathmullan sits on the western shore of Lough Swilly, Co. Donegal. The Friary was built by Eoghan Rua MacSweeney in 1516 but was sacked by the English in 1597. It was turned into a fortified house during the Napoleonic Wars.
42
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[cat.37b]
Andrew Nicholl R.H.A. (1804-1886) View of Clifden, Connemara, with the Twelve Pins beyond, Ireland Signed lower right: A. Nicholl R.H.A. Watercolour over pencil, heightened with white 50.4 by 70.7 cm., 19 ¾ by 27 ¾ in.
This is a view of the town of Clifden, Co. Galway from the West. Beyond are the mountains known as the Twelve Pins or Twelve Pins of Connemara. Clifden was built by the owner of the land John D’Arcy in 1812. The first church in Clifden, St Mary’s, visible on the hill to the left, was built in 1824 by the Rev. Myles Prendergast with the help of D’Arcy. It was replaced by a new church between 1853 and 1864. It was joined by the nearby St Joseph’s church in 1879.
43
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George Frederick Prosser (1805-1882) (nos. 38-41) George Frederick Prosser was born in London and worked in Surrey before moving to Winchester in the early 1850s, where he established himself as an artist and drawing master. He travelled around the southern counties and appears to have largely taken his inspiration from Surrey, particularly around Guildford, as well as in Hampshire, in and around Winchester, as well as slightly further afield at Maidenhead, Eton, Windsor and their
surroundings. He produced a series of illustrated guides to Hampshire and Surrey including; ‘Select Illustrations of the County of Surrey, comprising...views of the seats of the nobility and gentry...& c, 1828; ‘Select Illustrations of Hampshire: Comprising Picturesque Views of the Seats of the Nobility & Gentry, Lodge Entrances & c.’ , 1833; ‘Scenic and Antiquarian Features of the neighbourhood and town of Guildford, Surrey’, 1840 and ‘The Antiquities of Hampshire’, 1842.
[cat.38]
George Frederick Prosser (1805-1882) Winchester from Morestead Downs Signed lower left: WINCHESTER/From Morested Downs/by G.F.E. Prosser. 1876. Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour 42.5 by 74.9 cm., 16 ¾ by 29 ½ in. Provenance: Private Collection, Hampshire
This is a view of Winchester taken from the south-east near the village of Morestead. To the left the landscape rises towards St Catherine’s Hill. On the hill to the west are Winchester Barracks with spire of Christ Church visible centre left. The square tower in the centre of the watercolour is Winchester College Chapel with the larger Winchester Cathedral visible to its right. 44
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[cat.39]
George Frederick Prosser (1805-1882) The Gateway, Lewes Castle, Sussex Signed lower left: Gateway/Lewes Castle/Sussex/G.F. Prosser 1873 Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and stopping out 38.1 by 52.5 cm., 15 by 20 ½ in. Provenance: Commissioned by Henry Thomas Pelham, 3rd Earl of Chichester (1804-1886), Stanmer Park, Lewes; Private Collection, Hampshire
Lewes Castle is one of the earliest of the Norman castles, begun in 1067. The gateway depicted here, dates from the early 14th Century, when John de Warenne ordered its construction following the attack on the castle in 1264, during the Baron’s War, when much of the surrounding town was burnt to the ground.
45
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[cat.40a]
George Frederick Prosser (1805-1882) Windsor Railway Bridge and the Thames from Windsor Bridge Signed lower left: The Bridge/Windsor/1868/Prosser and signed and inscribed on old mount: Looking from Windsor Bridge/GFP 1868/£3.3.0 Watercolour over pencil 22 by 37.3 cm., 8 ½ by 14 ½ in.
This is a view looking west down the river Thames towards Windsor railway bridge which was built by Brunel in the 1840s to carry the railway linking Windsor and Slough. Searle’s, the well known London boat makers, owned a building at Windsor between 1850 and 1870. Beyond are Eton College boat houses.
46
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[cat.40b]
George Frederick Prosser (1805-1882) The approach to Bray Church from Maidenhead, Berkshire Signed lower left: Bray/G.F. Prosser 1871 and inscribed with title and dated on part of old mount Watercolour over pencil 17.6 by 26.4 cm., 7 by 10 ¼ in.
Maidenhead, originally dates to 1293. It was built by Queen Margaret, wife of Edward 1 and being a royal foundation and near Windsor, the church was expensively and elaborately constructed, especially given the size of the population at the time. Chauntry House, the red brick house to the right of the church, was originally built in 1754, during its long history it has been both private residence and hotel. The cricket pitch, just seen over the fence, beyond the road, is reputedly one of the oldest in the country and has been in continuous use since at least 1774. The first recorded cricketer from Bray was in 1744, when he was selected to play at the Artillery Ground in London, when cricket was first being formulated and six years before the foundation of Hambledon Cricket Club, widely regarded as the cradle of cricket. 47
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[cat.41a]
George Frederick Prosser (1805-1882) Farley Mount, Hampshire Signed lower left: G.F. Prosser/Farley Mount and inscribed verso: No 12/Horse Monument Farley Mount Watercolour over pencil heightened with scratching out 16.5 by 25.1 cm., 6 ½ by 9 ¾ in.
This monument, on a Bronze Age mound, marks the resting place of a horse named ‘Beware Chalk Pit’, which belonged to Paulet St John (1704-1780). In September 1733, it survived leaping into a twenty-five foot deep chalk pit whist out hunting and the following year, carried its owner to racing victory, winning the Hunter’s Plate at Worthy
48
Down, Winchester. Exactly when the horse died, or when the monument was erected is uncertain, although the monument was almost certainly built before 1772, as its inscription does not mention St John’s baronetcy.
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[cat.41b]
George Frederick Prosser (1805-1882) The River Wey with Guildford Castle Keep from the foot of St Catherine's, Surrey Bears signature lower left and signed and dated 1868 and inscribed with title on reverse of original mount Watercolour over pencil 14 by 22 cm., 5 ½ by 8 ½ in.
The river Wey which passes through Guildford, is one of the main tributaries of the Thames. Its two branches, rising in Alton, Hampshire and south of Haslemere, merge and flow north through Godalming and Guildford until it joins the Thames at Weybridge. Guildford Castle was one of the early castles, build shortly after the Norman Conquest. The stone keep, which stands today, was built
around 1130 to replace the initial timber construction. The castle has served as a royal palace, prison and private residence, before being sold to the corporation of Guildford and a public park and garden created around the keep. The ruined chapel on St Catherine’s hill, is a small 14th Century chapel, built by the rector of nearby St Nicholas Church, Richard de Wauncey.
49
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[cat.42]
Waller Hugh Paton, R.S.A. (1828-1895) Cottages at Inver, Scotland Signed lower left: Walter H. Paton R.S.A. and inscribed lower right: Inver/25th August 1879 Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour 25.1 by 36.3 cm., 9 ¾ by 14 ¼ in.
Paton’s father was a damask designer and keen antiquarian, and both his siblings were artists. Sir Joseph Noel Paton who studied briefly at the Royal Academy in London and was invited to form part of the Pre-Raphaelites Brotherhood whilst his sister was the sculptor, Amelia Robertson Hill. Waller initially worked with his father as a damask designer, before studying under the historical genre painter John Houston (1802–1884). He spent his life in his native Scotland and established himself as a
50
leading landscape painter, largely working en pleinair. He was elected A.R.S.A. in 1857 and R.S.A. in 1865. Through his brother, he became aware of John Ruskin and the work of the Pre-Raphaelites, which proved hugely influential on his style. He adopted something of their careful attention to detail and meticulous handling. Inver lies on the south east shore of Inver Bay, at the place where the bay opens out into the Dornoch Firth.
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[cat.43]
William Simpson (1823-1899) A Hot Day in the Batteries, Sebastapol Signed lower right: W.m Simpson/1856 Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour 25.3 by 35.4 cm., 10 by 14 in. Provenance:With the Fine Art Society, London, 1984; With the Fine Art Society, London, 1991
William Simpson was commissioned by publisher John Scott of Colnaghi & Co. to visit the Crimea and produce a series of watercolours of the Crimean War which were subsequently engraved for the publication The Seat of War in the East published in 1855-56. The publication included over eighty lithographs and was a major success. Simpson has been described as the first war artist. This depicts the shelling of Sebastapol by Allied forces – the siege lasted for eleven months and its eventual capture led the Russians to sue for peace
in March 1856. This finished watercolour relates, with some differences, to plate 34 of the publication which is entitled ‘A Hot Day at the Batteries’. The text accompanying the plate describes it as a view ‘taken from the left of Twenty-one Gun Battery, just at the entrance to it from the Woronzoff Road, which runs at the bottom of the hollow on the left.’ It continues: ‘The wind blows the smoke away from the town, and Sebastapol, with its magnificent public buildings, its proud forts, its placid harbour, and its numerous fleet, is distinctly visible as the sulphureous cloud rolls sullenly away to leeward.’ 51
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[cat.44]
Henry Charles Brewer (1866-1950) The Temple of Athena Nike, Acropolis, Athens Signed lower right: HC BREWER 1886 Watercolour over pencil 26.4 by 35.9 cm., 10 ¼ x 14 in.
Brewer was born in Wurzberg, Germany into a family of artists. He studied at Westminster School of Art and travelled widely in Europe and North Africa from a young age. The present watercolour dates from an early visit to Greece. He specialised in views of buildings and monuments and his later work has an architectural feel.
52
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[cat.45]
Edward Lear (1812-1888) The Malabar Coast, India Signed with monogram lower right, inscribed with title on the border and numbered verso: 48. (C.3) Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with bodycolour 11.6 by 23.8 cm., 4 ½ by 9 ¼ in. Provenance: Sir Franklin Lushington (1823-1901); Thence by descent until 2022
Lear was invited to India in 1872 by his friend Thomas Baring, Earl of Northbrook who had been appointed Viceroy of India and finally left Naples for Bombay in the autumn of 1873. He arrived on 22nd November 1873 and stayed until 11th January 1875 – it was his last major overseas tour. Malabar was the old name for the south-west coast of India most of which is Kerala. Lear visited the area from September to December 1874 on his way to and from the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
53
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[cat.46a]
Benjamin John Merifield Donne (1831-1928) A Boat at Repose near Vevey, Lake Geneva Signed lower left: Donne/'83 and inscribed verso: Repose/Nr Vevey/Lake Geneva and in different hands: to Anna J.M. Best/To Guy from Auntie Anna's portfolio Nov '42 Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour 28.5 by 45.9 cm., 11 ¼ by 18 in. Provenance: By descent from the artist until at least 1942
Donne grew up in Lyme Regis, Dorset and was self- taught as an artist. He lived at Crewkerne, Somerset and held several exhibitions of his work at the Dowdeswell Galleries in London in the 1880s. Two of his sons, both of whom served in the Army, and one of his daughters, were also artists. As a young man growing up in Lyme Regis he knew the well known fossil hunter Mary Anning (1799-1847) and drew a portrait of her in pastel in 1850 which is now in the Geological Society.
54
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[cat.46b]
Benjamin John Merifield Donne (1831-1928) Cacti at Nice, France Signed lower right: BJM Donne/1886 nice Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour 28.5 by 45.9 cm., 11 ¼ by 18 in.
55
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[cat.47a]
Henry Moore, R.A. (1831-1896) Shipping at Sea Signed lower left: H. Moore A.R.A. R.W.S./1887 Watercolour over pencil 19.2 by 30.7 cm., 7 ½ by 12 in.
The son of the landscape painter, William Moore, three of Moore’s siblings were also artists including his much younger brother, Albert Joseph Moore (1841-1893). Henry entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1853 and exhibited his first picture the same year. He became an associate of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1876, and a full member four years later. In 1885, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, becoming a full Academician three years before his death. As Peter Nahum noted, Moore ‘was one of the first painters to try and observe accurately the movement and moods of the sea’. (Peter Nahum, A Century of Master Drawings, 1995). He had a scientific interest in the form of waves and from the 1870s Moore spent several weeks aboard yachts owned by friends, painting and studying the sea. The close viewpoint of the waves and the play of deep shadow on the rolling water suggest that the present watercolour was the result of one such voyage. 56
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[cat.47b]
Henry Moore, R.A. (1831-1896) Shore Breakers, Hastings Signed lower right: H. Moore. 1892 Watercolour over pencil 17.7 by 25.3 cm., 7 by 10 in.
The present late watercolour demonstrates the artist’s abiding interest in colour and the play of light on water, which encouraged a degree of abstraction in his late work. This impressionistic style probably did much to encourage the artist’s popularity in France; he was awarded the Grand Prix at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 and then chevalier of the Légion d’honneur.
57
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[cat.48]
Edward Julius Detmold (1883-1957) Study of a Beetle Signed with monogram lower right Watercolour over pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour Sheet 18.6 by 17.6 cm., 7 ¼ by 7 in.
Edward Detmold and his twin brother (Charles Maurice Detmold (1883-1908) were print makers and illustrators specialising in studies of animals, birds and insects. They studied under their uncle Henry Detmold who was also an artist and exhibited at the Royal Academy aged 13 in 1898. Their first folio of etchings quickly sold out and they begun to produce illustrations for books including Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book.’ Charles committed suicide in 1908 and Edward threw himself into his work. He established himself as among the best illustrators of his generation until he retired to Montgomeryshire, Wales, in 1940. 58
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[cat.49a]
William Bowyer, R.A., R.W.S. (1926-2015) A River in a Landscape near Coverack, Cornwall Signed lower right: William Bowyer Watercolour 47.7 by 67.8 cm., 18 ¾ by 26 ½ in. Provenance: By descent from the artist
[cat.49b]
William Bowyer, R.A., R.W.S. (1926-2015) The Staffordshire Moors near Leek Signed lower right: William Bowyer ‘73 Watercolour 57.8 by 75.2 cm., 22 ¾ by 29 ½ in. Provenance: By descent from the artist
For more information on the artist, see note on no.50a. 59
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[cat.50a]
William Bowyer, R.A., R.W.S. (1926-2015) Storm Clouds over the Sea, Coverack, Cornwall Signed lower right: William Bowyer ‘70 Watercolour 52 by 74.8 cm., 20 ½ by 29 ½ in. Provenance: By descent from the artist
William Bowyer was born in Leek in Staffordshire and studied at the Burslem School of Art and the Royal College of Art where he was taught by Ruskin Spear and Carel Weight among others. He was Head of Fine Art at Maidstone School of Art from 1971 to 1982 and was made a full member of the Royal Academy in 1981. He was also a member of the Royal Watercolour Society and Honorary Secretary of the New English Art Club. He is best 60
known for his traditional landscapes, many of the Thames at Chiswick, his home from 1951, as well as views taken at Walberswick, Suffolk, his second home for many years. He was also a successful portraitist with his portraits of Arthur Scargill and Viv Richards being bought by the National Portrait Gallery in 1988. A keen cricketeer, he was commissioned by the MCC to paint a game at Lord’s in the same year.
GPFA
[cat.50b]
William Bowyer, R.A., R.W.S. (1926-2015) An approaching Storm, Coverack, Cornwall Signed lower right: William Bowyer Watercolour 51.9 by 74.8 cm., 20 ½ by 29 ½ in. Provenance: By descent from the artist
These watercolours, which have remained in his family, perhaps show a more private side to his work and are unusual in their scale and audacity. Nos. 49a, 50a and b were painted on a family holiday to Coverack in Cornwall whereas 49b is a view on the Staffordshire moors near Leek near where William grew up.
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William Page (1794-1872)
The Citadel, Corfu, probably circa 1821 [cat.59] 62
N I C H OL A S S H AW T H E A RT O F E X P L O R AT I O N AND ADVENTURE
63
NS
[cat.51]
William Purser (1785-1856) Probably Naples harbour Signed lower left ‘W. Purser’ Watercolour over pencil 12 by 18.5 cm
Purser was an accomplished artist and architect who had trained at the Royal Academy Schools. By 1805 he had begun to exhibit at both the Royal Academy and the Society of British Artists. His first travels abroad were to Italy and Greece between 1817 and 1820 in the company of George Ledwell Taylor and architect John Sanders, for whom he acted as draughtsman. Later, he was to travel to the Near East producing some outstanding images of the Ottoman Empire.
64
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[cat.52]
Thomas Allom (1804-1872) A Sketch of Naples Harbour, circa 1830 Watercolour over pencil heightened in white on paper, mounted 12.5 cm by 17.4 cm
Allom began his travels in Europe in the 1820s composing paintings that were used as the inspiration for the illustrations for a number of prominent publications. This quick and colourful sketch of the entrance into the harbour of Naples captures not only the principal topographical elements dominated by the looming presence of Vesuvius behind the hill top fortifications of Castel Sant’Elmo but also the energetic chaos of life on the water itself.
65
NS
[cat.53]
Edward Lear (1812-1888) Kandy, Sri Lanka, dated December 1874 Inscribed ‘Kandy, Dec. 2nd 1874, 7.45 a.m’ and variously with notes of subject, scale and colour Watercolour, pen and ink 16 by 34.5 cm Provenance: Thomas Agnew and Sons
Lear arrived in India on 22nd November 1873 in a state of feverish excitement at the ‘myriad of impossible picturesqueness’ that lay before him to capture. He travelled widely in all directions arriving toward the end of his journey in the much anticipated Sri Lanka. But although Lear had long dreamt of the landscapes of this island, by the time he and his servant and companion, Giorgio, arrived in November 1874, both were tired from the exertions of the previous months and, in early December, Giorgio contracted dysentery. Consequently, their stay in Sri Lanka was brief, just a few weeks, and Lear’s depictions of the island are rare. Lear took the train from Colombo to Kandy on 1st December which he found was a ‘singularly comfortable one’ taking two rooms at the Oriental on arrival. He found Kandy damp but delightfully
66
quiet after the raucousness of Colombo. But his was the first day that Giorgio began to endure stomach pains – described by Lear in his diaries as ‘dolore do panza’ or indigestion – but which over the next two days was to be diagnosed as dysentery. He record drawing various views in the morning of the 2nd December before meeting with his friends, the Barings, at Government House. Lear himself was suffering from a bad sore throat and found his spirits slumping in the face off incessant rain. Advised to return to Colombo for the sake of Giorgio’s health, they returned to the coast on 7th December and, once a local doctor had advised that Giorgio was well enough to travel, they boarded the Asia headed for Tuticorin on 12th December. After a brief time on the Malabar coast they headed to Bombay and within a month of their departure from Sri Lanka, Lear and Giorgio headed home.
NS
[cat.54]
Thomas Hartley Cromek (1809-1873) The Temple of Apollo at Corinth, circa 1840 Watercolour on paper, mounted 17 cm by 25 cm Inscribed lower left ‘T. H. Cromek f., Rome’
After a period of studying the old masters in Italy in 1830, Cromek spent most of the next twenty years travelling around Italy and Greece recording the notable and ancient monuments of these two countries. His obvious abilities as a watercolourist were immediately recognised and, on his retirement in 1860, he was elected an Associate of the New Society of Painters in Water-colour.
The subject of this watercolour are the seven remaining monolithic columns of the Temple of Apollo at Corinth, dating from 550-530 BCE, built in the Doric style on the site of an earlier temple. Behind, on the top of a rocky outcrop, is the ancient Acropolis of Corinth, originally fortified but with later Frankish and Venetian additions to those fortifications.
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NS
[cat.55]
Thomas Hartley Cromek (1809-1873) A View of the Gate of the Lions, Mycenae, circa 1840 Pen on paper, mounted 16.7 cm by 12.4 cm Inscribed lower left ‘Mycaene [sic] . Gate of the lions.’
The Gate of the Lions was the main entrance to the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae in southern Greece. Constructed around 1250 BCE, it is the largest surviving example of Mycenean monumental sculpture. It remained visible throughout its history and drew comment from Pausanius in the 2nd century AD. In 1840, the Greek Archaeological Society began work to clear soil and other debris from the site. Since the door is still blocked in. Cromek’s drawing, it was probably made prior to 1840. 68
NS
[cat.56]
Thomas Hartley Cromek (1809-1873) A view of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens, circa 1840 Pen on paper, mounted 11.6 cm by 26 cm Inscribed lower left “Temple of Jupiter, Olympius [sic], Athens” Inscribed lower right “T.H. Cromek f. 1846”
Cromek spent most of the years between 1831 and 1849 in Italy and Greece drawing and painting the monuments and landscapes of these regions. The view depicted is from the foot of the Acropolis towards Piraeus with the remains of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, a temple started in the sixth century BCE but not completed until 131 AD in the reign of Hadrian. In 86 AD, two columns from the then unfinished temple were taken to Rome by Emperor Sulla and included in the building of the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. In the early 1800s, an ascetic monk, a Stylite or pillar-saint, made a home on top of a section of these columns. The remains of his hermitage is visible in Cromek’s drawing. In 1852, the centre of the three columns standing apart from the main cluster of remains was blown down by strong winds.
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NS
[cat.57]
Arthur John Strutt (1819 Chelmsford – 1888 Rome) Italian Buffalo Signed A. J. Strutt and dated 1840 Pen on paper 25 by 33.5 cm
Strutt, a painter, engraver, writer, traveller and archaeologist, fell in love with Italy at a young age. His father, Jacob George Strutt, was also a talented landscape painter and his mother, Elizabeth, a writer and traveller, was a friend of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In 1831, aged just twelve yers old, Arthur, in the company of his father, made his first visit to Italy. The family established a permanent home in Rome though still continuing with their travels, France and Switzerland between 1835 and 1837 before returning to travels around Italy.
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NS
[cat.58]
Arthur John Strutt (1819 Chelmsford – 1888 Rome) Roman cattle, probably Maremmana Signed A. J. Strutt and dated 1840 Pen on paper 25 by 33.5 cm
Arthur was described on more than one occasion as ‘a very clever painter of landscapes’ and was also noted for his depictions of scenery about Rome and ‘groups of Roman peasantry and cattle’. His large oil paintings are in a number of prominent collections and his sketch books are housed in the Huntington, California.
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NS
[cat.59]
William Page (1794-1872) The Citadel, Corfu, probably circa 1821 Brown wash on paper, mounted, original title separately 12.3 cm by 19.6 cm Inscribed ‘Corfu’ on title attached to backboard
Page made a number of versions of this painting including one in the British Museum, inv. no. 1995, 0121.2. Having travelled to Constantinople with his patron, William Campbell, in May 1821, their return coincided with the start of the Greek War of Independence and so they headed for Corfu, then a British protectorate, arriving in July. Campbell had contracted a fever on the journey to Corfu and was to passed away just days after their arrival in Corfu. This would have given Page some opportunity to spend a little time in Corfu and may well have been the moment that he composed this sketch.
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NS
[cat.60]
William Page (1794-1872) Kalyoncu, or Sea Captain Watercolour on laid paper, partial annotation in pencil l.r. 23.6 by 14.6 cm
Kalyon is the Ottoman version of galleon, hence the term for a sea captain. Page made a number of costume studies in his travels around the Ottoman Empire, possibly owing something of his approach to an influence from the french artist, Dupre, who was travelling in these areas at the same time. This watercolour is closely related to one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, SD. 729, which may have been worked up from this example. 73
NS
[cat.61]
William Page (1794-1872) An arch with figures, Pergamon Watercolour on wove paper 26.8 by 39.9 cm
The composition, of a ruined arch with a figure resting in the shade that it casts, was one that Page returned to frequently. His travels in Greece and Turkey, between 1816 and 1824, provided him with the opportunity to visit the great sites of antiquity in the Ottoman Empire, such as Ephesus and, most likely in this case, Pergamon. These were subjects that continued to provide Page with inspiration for works long after his return.
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The composition relates closely to a monochrome sketch in the collection of the British Museum in a number of elements, such as the bird nesting atop the arch (1974, 1026.27). The British Museum example is identified as ‘Pergamon’, or rather Pergamon, the ancient Greek city in Mysia in north west Turkey. Page, on this occasion, has revisited the composition and added an Ottoman mosque to the left, perhaps to emphasise the Turkish location of this scene.
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[cat.62]
William Swainson (1789 London-1855 New Zealand) The Ear of Dionysius, Syracuse Grey wash on paper, laid on grey card with an inscription by the artist ‘The Ear of Dionysius’ 13.6 by 20.9 cm Provenance: By descent form the artist until 2021. This was amongst the drawings left to his son Edwin.
In 1608, the artist Caravaggio was taken to see the cave carved out of the the limestone of the Temenite Hills near Syracuse in Sicily. He named the cave after the Greek tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse (c.432-367 BC). The legend, possibly one created by Caravaggio himself, has it that he used the cave to imprison political prisoners and that the astonishing acoustics of the cave allowed him to eavesdrop on their secret machinations. The entrance to the cave takes its name from its resemblance to the human ear. The cave is thought by some to be the result of quarrying but others consider it to be the result of erosion by water.
In 1806, at the age of seventeen, Swainson, craving adventure and ‘the exotic’ had managed to obtain the position in the British armies CommissaryGeneral in Sicily where he remained until ill health forced his return to England in 1815. It was in Sicily that he honed his artistic skills naturally inclined to toward zoological, botanical and topographical subjects. He developed schemes for publications of coastal views of the island even creating frontispieces for these imagined, but never realised, publications. In his depiction of the Ear of Dionysius he places two figures at the base of the opening to give a sense of its enormity. One of these figures is dressed in British army uniform and holds an artist portfolio under one arm - a self-portrait perhaps? 75
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[cat.63]
William Swainson (1789 London-1855 New Zealand) The Cave of Dionysius, Syracuse, Sicily Grey wash on paper, laid on grey card with black lined borders and inscribed by the artist ‘Caves of Dionysius, Syracuse’ 21 by 14.3 cm Provenance: By descent form the artist descent to 2021. This was one of the works given to his son Edwin, who remained in Europe when William Swainson left for New Zealand.
There has been much debate over the years about how this cave came into being. Most have argued that it was excavated either as a source of limestone or as a reservoir for water. Others have raised the possibility that the nature of the rock would have allowed this cavity for form naturally through the erosion of the water trickling down its fissures. In this depiction, we see men apparently surveying the site.
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[cat.64]
Charles Ramus Forrest (1750-1827) Temple and village on the Ganges, circa 1807/08 Watercolour and pencil on paper, framed 19.4 by 27.5 cm
One of Charles Ramus Forrest’s beautiful watercolours of his travels up the Ganges and Jumna, the account of which he later published as ‘A Picturesque Tour Along the Rivers Ganges and Jumna’ (Ackerman, 1824, plate XI). The subject is a village and ‘pagoda’ which Forrest observed just below Patna near the town of Azimabad. A soldier and amateur artist, Forrest recorded and illustrated his travels as an official of the East India Company copying the detail of the landscape attentively and often colouring them in situ in order to preserve the inspiration of the moment.
Forrest gives an account of this precise moment in his published work. On 2 December 1807, he set out from Calcutta, passing through various towns along the river courses, including Bhagalpur, Monghyr and Patna. A few miles below Patna, he “passed a very prettily situated village, with its pagoda of a most picturesque form, its ghaut of the red stone, and its native Hindoos performing their ablutions in the sacred stream of the Ganges. The varied forms and tints of the foliage surrounding this romantic spot give a good relief and effect to the white buildings, as may be seen in the annexed view.”
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[cat.65]
Indian artist, probably Patna, North East India, circa 1820-30 A group of acrobats Watercolour on paper
From the late 18th century, an interest in the complexities of Indian life began to grow amongst European visitors. As a result, both European and Indian artists started to produce work which depicted the numerous castes, trades, spiritual figures, regional difference and, as in this case, forms of entertainment that might be come across on a visit to the sub-continent.
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The practice of producing albums follows a format already in existence in Europe and seems to cater for an almost scientific urge to produce a taxonomically exhaustive study of the population. Indian artists were to be provided with models to follow by European artists, such as Balthasar Solvyns, who began to publish works containing such figure studies. Many Indian artists were called upon to help with the colouring of the printed works by European artists and were, therefore, quickly instilled with an understanding and firsthand experience of this new artistic style.
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[cat.66]
Indian artist, probably Patna, North East India, circa 1820-30 Entertainer with a bear Watercolour on paper
Patna lies on the Ganges, north of Kolkata, and was a popular point at which to disembark for Europeans, whether visiting India to take in the sights or for reasons of commerce. As a consequence, it became a fruitful location for Indian artists creating works in this style, sometimes known as ‘Company School’, informed by European tradition and intended for European patrons.
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[cat.67a]
[cat.67b]
Indian artist, Tanjore, circa 1830 A watercolour artist and his wife
Indian artist, Tanjore, circa 1830 A barber and his wife
Watercolour and pen on paper 25 by 20 cm
Watercolour and pen on paper 25 by 20 cm
The influence of European styles of painting, as well as the rise of Europeans as artistic patrons, flourished in several regions of India, always most pronounced where the European population was more populous and affluent. In southern India, a number of local variations, or schools, developed in the late 18th century.
One of these was in Tanjore, where a British garrison was stationed from 1773 but where there also existed a French population. Though the subject matter was often related to works being produced in Bihar and Bengal, local influences, both from the artistic tradition of the ‘Moochys’ of Tanjore and from its European visitors, began to synthesise into
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[cat.68a]
[cat.68b]
Watercolour and pen on paper 25 by 20 cm
Watercolour and pen on paper 25 by 20 cm
a distinct and recognisable form. For instance, the source of the ‘islands’ of landscape beneath the feet of the figures in these four paintings might well have been drawn from printed European studies of figures, produced in France and Germany from the 16th century onwards, that use a similar device (Roselyn Hurel, Miniatures & Peintures Indiennes,
Bibliotheque Nationale de France, 2011, Vol II, p.144). An album in the Victoria and Albert Museum, (IS 39-1987), has closely related figure studies.
Indian artist, Tanjore, circa 1830 A religious mendicant and his wife
Indian artist, Tanjore, circa 1830 A religious mendicant and his wife
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[cat.69]
Indian artist, Agra, circa 1830-40 The Taj Mahal Watercolour and pen on paper Size: 27.9 by 38 cm
As British control of Indian territories spread north from Bengal in the early 19th century, the city of Agra, amongst others, came under its authority allowing a greater freedom with which to explore its architectural splendours. The British had long admired the achievements of the Mughal Empire and its crumbling monuments had long nourished the European hunger for the ‘picturesque’. With access to buildings, such as the Taj Mahal, now easier an appetite for the history and architectural detail quickly emerged amongst the British both in India and at home. Alongside the depictions which fed the romantic legend of the Taj came intricate and accurate studies of building forms and inlaid decoration.
With political control came the responsibility for the upkeep and restoration of these great Mughal buildings and the British authorities commissioned surveys as part of supervisory programme. They employed Indian artists to assist with these drawings having observed an innate skill in recording detail amongst the local artists. These artists were probably amongst those that went on to produce images such as this.
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Sir George Clausen, RA, RWS (1852-1944)
Hayrick by a Line of Trees [cat.83] 84
HARRY MOORE-GWYN BRITISH ART
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[cat.70]
Sir John Everett Millais, Bt. PRA (1829-1896) Study of a Dog for “Peace Concluded”, 1856 Pencil, 9 by 10.5 cm (3 ½ by 4 ins) Provenance: Raoul Millais
The present drawing is a study for the Irish wolfhound in Millais’s 1856 painting Peace Concluded, now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The dog sits to the far right of the painting, curled up at the feet of an injured officer who has returned from the Crimean War. In his hand the officer holds a copy of The Times announcing that the war has ended. This seminal Pre Raphaelite work was greatly admired by John Ruskin who described is “amongst the great masterpieces”. The sitter for the central female figure in the final painting was Effie Gray, Millais’ wife, who had previously been married to Ruskin.
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[cat.71]
John Guille Millais (1865-1931) Seals Beached on an Estuary Signed l.l.: J.G.Millais Watercolour and gouache, 19.5 by 26.5 cm (7 ¾ by 10 ¼ ins) Provenance: Raoul Millais
The drawings on these two pages showcase the diverse talents of three generations of the Millais family from its most famous member, Sir John Everett, who was a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood who went on to become a central figure of the British establishment (and President of the Royal Academy) to two quite different artist’s in his son John Guille and grandson Raoul. John Guille was something of a polymath – an explorer, artist, gardener and naturalist whose studies and writings of wildlife in South Africa and Newfoundland are seminal sources on their subject from the later nineteenth century. His son Raoul was also noted as an equestrian painter, as well as a traveller somewhat in his father’s mold.
[cat.72]
Raoul Millais (1901-1999) A Horse-Drawn Carriage Signed l.r.: Raoul Millais Pen with brush and sepia ink, 13.5 by 22 cm (5 ¼ by 8 ¾ ins)
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[cat.73]
James Smetham (1821-1889) A Scene from “The Tempest”, c.1864 Watercolour, 13 by 9.5 cm (5 by 3 ¾ ins) Provenance: from an album of the artist’s works
Smetham was one of the most visionary artists in the circle of the Pre Raphaelites. As well as a painter he was an essayist and poet and he wrote on William Blake who was a strong influence as was the work of his immediate followers, the group known as The Ancients, which included Samuel Palmer, George Richmond and John Linnell. Shakespeare was a recurring theme in Smetham’s art which tackled Othello (1852), Lady Macbeth (1870) and Ophelia (1874). The Tempest fired his imagination perhaps more than many other play with works including Prospero and Miranda in 1864 and Trinculo and Caliban in 1858. 88
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[cat.74]
James Smetham (1821-1889) Portrait of Sarah, the Artist’s Wife, Sleeping Pencil, 10 by 11 cm (4 by 4 ¼ ins) Provenance: from an album of the artist’s work
Sarah Goble met Smetham whilst they were both teaching at the Wesleyan Normal College in Westminster. They would go on to marry and have six children together. After Smetham’s death she also played an important part in his legacy, publishing many of his letters which shed light on his friends and contemporaries including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Ruskin.
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[cat.75]
Frederic, Lord Leighton, PRA (1830-1896) Portrait of Alexandra Leighton, the Artist’s Sister, c.1853 With a landscape sketch (verso) Bears inscription (under mount) Mrs Sutherland Orr/ an unpublished Portrait sketch/ by her brother, Lord Leighton, PRA Charcoal heightened with white, 20.5 cm (8 ins) (diameter)
Alexandra Leighton (later Mrs Sutherland Orr) was a sitter in a number of the artist’s works and a prominent expert on the English poet Robert Browning. The drawing bears some similarity to a striking portrait of Alexandra in profile and in Renaissance dress from c.1853 (now in the Crowther-Obak Collection of Victorian Art). Apparently unpublished in the artist’s lifetime, the present portrait was reproduced in The Weekly Magazine following Alexandra’s death in 1903. 90
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[cat.76]
Walter Crane, RWS (1845-1915) Corfe Castle, Dorset Signed with monogram and dated l.l.: WC/89 and inscribed with dedication to the reverse of the original backboard Walter Crane to Richard Glazier in pleasant remembrance of cooperation at the Manchester School of Art Watercolour, 27 by 18 cm (10 ½ by 7 ins) Provenance: a gift from the artist to Richard Glazier (1851-1918), Crane’s colleague and head master at Manchester School of Art
Crane was appointed Director of Design at Manchester School of Art in 1893. Glazier, to whom this watercolour was dedicated, was the school’s headmaster from its formation (following the amalgamation in 1892) until his sudden death in 1918. As well as a teacher and administrator, Glazier was an architect, wellknown for his handbook A Manual of Historic Ornament. 91
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[cat.77]
Albert Goodwin, RWS (1845-1932) Eton College from the River Thames Inscribed l.r.: Eton Watercolour over pen and ink, 24.5 by 35 cm (9 ½ by 13 ¾ ins)
Goodwin was a pupil of Arthur Hughes who was later championed by John Ruskin. His landscape watercolours have a rich, mystical tone to them in part achieved by his sometimes ingenious mixture of mediums. Many collectors have also detected in them something of the spiritual, arguably accounted for by his own strong religious beliefs. He wrote in his diary in 1888: “The whole natural world…is one great allegory, typical of the spiritual world. Our business is to study the natural world as the continued revelation of God, guiding us forever into fresh revelation of himself.” (quoted, Arts Council, Landscape in Britain 1850-1950, exhibition catalogue 1983, p.77 (under no.57).
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[cat.78]
Albert Goodwin, RWS (1845-1932) Hastings Castle, Sunset Signed and dated l.r.: Albert Goodwin/1922 and inscribed with title Watercolour heightened with white, 24.5 by 35 cm (9 ½ by 13 ¾ ins)
What is at first sight a typically Goodwinian sunset subject, in fact shows the Besieging of Hastings Castle – or at least a re-enactment of it by some of Hastings’s younger residents.
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[cat.79]
Bernard Sleigh (1872-1954) A Rainbow over a Loch, possibly Loch Coruisk, Isle of Skye Coloured chalks, 19 by 26.5 cm (7 ½ by 10 ¼ ins)
Sleigh was a diversely talented painter, stained glass maker, muralist and printmaker. A prominent figure in the Birmingham School of art in the mid-1920s, his early work is influenced by William Morris and the late Pre Raphaelites and it always retains a strongly decorative quality and sense of design.
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[cat.80]
Harry Morley, ARA (1881-1943) Venus and Cupid Signed and dated l.r.: Harry Morley/1926 Tempera, 35 by 51.5 cm (13 ¾ by 20 ¼ ins)
The Society of Painters in Tempera met in Harry Morley’s studio in the 1920s with attendees including Joseph Southall, Maxwell Armfield and Morley himself. Although the society had been formed as early as 1901, the medium was not taken seriously until the 1920s (when Morley joined) and not accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy summer exhibition until after a seminal show of Italian Art there in 1930. Morley was one of the medium’s great advocates spurred on by his love of Quattrocento art. This also extended to his choice of Classical subject and in addition to this painting, he made an etching of Venus and Cupid in 1928. 95
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[cat.81]
Sir George Clausen, RA, RWS (1852-1944) The Old Tree Watercolour over pen and ink, 34 by 42 cm (13 ¼ by 16 ½ ins) Provenance: Mr. Ralph Fastnedge, DFC (Curator of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight); Thence by descent
A lifetime admirer of the work of the great French realist painter Jean-François Millet, this late rural subject picture is probably influenced by the French artist’s motif of peasants pulling a pig, as seen in The Pig Killers of 1867-70 (National Gallery of Canada). Clausen re-invents this idea depicting a group of countrymen removing a dead tree stump. A more finished version of this picture (which probably dates from c.1920), is in the Holburne Museum, Bath (see Kenneth McConkey, Sir George Clausen 1852-1944, Bradford Art Gallery exh.cat, 1980, p.101, no.141).
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[cat.82]
Sir George Clausen, RA, RWS (1852-1944) Land and Sky Signed with initials l.r.: GC Coloured chalks, 16.5 by 23 cm (6 ½ by 9 ins) Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 26th September 1985, lot 184
[cat.83]
Sir George Clausen, RA, RWS (1852-1944) Hayrick by a Line of Trees Coloured chalks, 16.5 by 23 cm (6 ½ by 9 ins) Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 26th September 1985, lot 184
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[cat.84]
Walter Sickert, RA (1860-1942) The Old Middlesex (Small Plate) 1914 (published 1915) Inscribed under mount: First State/Unique proof Etching on grey paper, first state, 12.7 by 18cm (11 by 7 ins) (plate) Literature: Bromberg, no. 158 I/IV; Aimée Troyen, Walter Sickert as Printmaker, New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 1979, p. 67, cat. no. 92 (second state) Exhibited: Possibly Agnews, Centenary Exhibition of Etchings and Drawings by W.R. Sickert, 1960
A smaller version of the composition etched by Sickert in c.1910-11 and based on drawings of the Old Middlesex Theatre from c.1906. An example of the third state is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (P.102-1955)
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[cat.85]
Thérèse Lessore (1884-1945) The Gallery Audience at the Euston Theatre of Varieties Signed l.r.: Lessore Watercolour over pen and ink, 21 by 16 cm (8 ¼ by 6 ¼ ins)
The Euston Theatre of Varieties (sometimes known as Euston Music Hall) opened in 1900 on the Euston Road almost directly opposite St Pancras station. By the early 1930s, following a decline in the interest in traditional music hall entertainment, the theatre had been converted into a cinema. It was briefly converted back to a theatre in the 1950s before being
demolished in the 1970s. Lessore’s study possibly relates to a larger painting by her of the music hall now in the collection of Islington Local History Centre and Museum. Like much of her best work its subject shows the influence of her later husband Walter Sickert but is executed in a style that is very much her own. 99
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[cat.86]
Sir Frank Brangwyn, RA, RWS (1867-1956) Train (Gare du Nord Paris), c.1920 Signed l.c.: Frank Brangwyn Brush and Indian ink over pencil and red chalk, 37 by 54.5 cm (14 ½ by 21 ½ ins)
This powerful drawing relates to a lithograph of the Gare du Nord executed by Brangwyn in c.1920. The print was published alongside two other views of the Gare du Nord in Frank Brangwyn, Zwanzig Graphische Arbeiten, published in 1921 by Wolf, Vienna. The book contained seventeen reproductions of drawings and original works on paper by the artist.
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[cat.87]
Robert Bevan (1865-1925) A Breton Girl With the artist’s studio stamp Black chalk, 29 by 19 cm (11 ½ by 7 ½ ins) Provenance: the artist’s studio; with the Maltzhan Gallery, London
Bevan made trips to Pont Aven in Brittany in 1890-1 and again in 1893-94. In his second visit he came into contact with the colony’s most famous resident Paul Gauguin who dedicated a monotype to him in 1894. Slightly older than some of his contemporaries in the Camden Town Group (who would form some twenty years later) he was one of the first of them to visit France and engage with Post Impressionism both in its vivid colouring and undulating draughtsmanship – something evident even in monochrome sketches like this one. 101
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[cat.88]
Herbert Dalziel, ROI (1858-1941) Seascape, 1918 Signed and dated l.l.: Herbert Dalziel/1918 Oil on canvas, 18 by 25 cm (7 by 9 ¾ ins)
In the catalogue for his landmark 1995 Barbican show Impressionism in Britain, Kenneth McKonkey wrote of Dalziel’s later work: “In an extraordinary departure, around 1910, Herbert Dalziel abandoned his conservative style and produced a number of jewel-like landscapes which adopt a sophisticated divisionism…the sense of atmosphere and weird luminosity draws comparisons with contemporary
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photography and the mystic landscapes of Khnopff.” Dalziel was the son of Thomas Dalziel, part of the important Victorian family wood-engraving business known as the Brothers Dalziel. He trained in Paris and in London and was an early member of the New English Art Club. His work, particularly his later paintings, are rare.
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[cat.89]
Sir Thomas Monnington, PRA (1902-1976) Skyscape over Houses Oil on panel, 14.5 by 19 cm (5 ½ by 7 ½ ins) Provenance: the artist’s son, John Monnington; with Liss Fine Art in the late 1990s
This beautifully subtle study from nature possibly depicts landscape near Monnington’s home at Leyswood, on the edge of Groombridge in Kent.
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[cat.90]
Eric Kennington, RA (1888-1960) Portrait of a Young Man Signed and dated l.l.: Eric H.Kennington/09 Pencil, 20.5 by 17.5 cm (8 by 7 ins)
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[cat.91]
Maurice Lambert, RA (1901-1964) Parachutists, 1919 Signed and titled l.l.: M. P. Lambert and dedicated and dated lower left to Penelope Spencer June 9th 1919 Watercolour over ink on paper, 55 by 37 cm (21 ½ by 14 ½ ins)
This powerful work was painted just at the end of the First World War when Lambert was working in the studio of the sculptor Francis Derwent Wood (1871-1926). Its visceral response to the War owes much to the Vorticist movement and the style of the Italian Futurists which had flourished in Europe in the previous few years and little to the restrained
Classicism of Derwent Wood. It does however anticipate Lambert’s own move towards modernism and his association in the 1930s with Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and the Seven and Five Society. The painting’s dedicatee, Penelope Spencer, was a leading ballerina of her era and friend of Lambert’s brother, the composer Constant Lambert. 105
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[cat.92]
Alfred Kingsley Lawrence, RA, RP (1893-1975) Study for a portrait of Mrs Schreiber Coloured chalks, 68 by 51 cm (26 ¾ by 20 ins) Provenance: the artist's estate
Lawrence was the winner of the Prix de Rome in 1923, following on from Winifred Knights in 1920 and Thomas Monnington in 1922. The scholarship awarded each painter a prolonged period studying at the British School in Rome where they were encouraged to draw inspiration from Renaissance art. On his return to England he developed a reputation as a muralist and later became a member of the Royal Academy where he was a staunch defender of traditional art. His portraits in chalk and pastel are exceptional examples of their medium at their best matching those of his fellow portrait painter Eric Kennington.
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[cat.93]
Guy Kortright (1876-1948) A Church on the Dalmatian Coast Watercolour, 37 by 33 cm (14 ½ by 13 ins)
Kortright developed his own distinctive and highly attractive style of decorative landscape painting, in part informed by his extensive travels in Continental Europe and also from his time living in the artists’ colony at St Ives in Cornwall with the painter Norman Wilkinson. Both artists went on to work as commercial artists and poster designers. Kortright put his artistic philosophy in writing in a series of articles with the title Decorative Landscape Painting which were published in the periodical The Artist in 1934 and 1935. This painting is possibly related to (and from the same collection as) a view of Dubrovnik in our Christmas catalogue in 2021 (no.63). 107
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[cat.94]
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, ARA (1889-1946) Nude on a Bed, South of France Signed l.r.: C.R.W. Nevinson Watercolour, 35.5 by 51.5 cm. (14 by 20 ins) Provenance: Spink & Sons; Claire and Garrick Stephenson
The present picture is a watercolour version of a painting of the same composition, Nude on a bed, South of France (sold Christie’s, London, 1st July 1993, lot 6). Although neither work is dated it may originate from a trip to the South of France made by Nevinson in 1930. The model can be confidently identified as the artist's wife, Kathleen, who was distinguished by her distinctive short-cut, deep red, hair. She appears in a number of Nevinson's French pictures (including other nudes), often depicted in similar interiors to this one, or peering from balconies.
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[cat.95]
Duncan Grant (1885-1978) Studies of the Legs and Feet of Paul Roche Presented in a modern decorative Bloomsbury-style frame Signed with monogram l.r.: DG Charcoal over pink oil-wash, 29.5 by 27 cm (11 ½ by 10 ½ ins) Provenance: Paul Roche
Paul Roche was one of the most significant figures from the latter part of Duncan Grant’s life – a close friend, lover and companion, he travelled widely with him, later writing a book on Grant and dedicating significant energy towards furthering the artist’s reputation following his death in 1978. He was also one of the artist’s most significant muses and models and he sat for Grant on numerous occasions from the late 1940s. 109
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[cat.96]
Jacob Kramer (1892-1962) Portrait of Igor Stravinsky Signed l.r.: Kramer Pastel, 54 by 41cm (21 ¼ by 16 ins)
The music of the Ukrainian/Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, one of the giants of twentieth century music, fascinated Kramer and in 1920 he produced an expressionist abstract response to Stravinsky’s greatest ballet the Rite of Spring (now in the Leeds Art Gallery (acc.1999.0043)). Kramer was himself of Russian heritage but his family fled to England in around 1900 following an increase in antisemitism there. Kramer later studied at the Slade School of Art in its golden era just before the outbreak of the First World War. 110
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[cat.97]
Charles Mahoney, RA (1903-1968) Study for “Autumn”, c.1951 Black crayon, 48 by 31 cm (18 ¾ by 12 ins) Provenance: the artist’s daughter; Liss Llewellyn Fine Art
The present work is a study for the central figure in Mahoney’s painting Autumn, the subject of which is based on the garden of his home in Kent. His wife Dorothy was the sitter for the painting. Although not specifically a Festival of Britain painting, it is a near pendant to Mahoney’s contribution to the exhibition Sixty Paintings for ’51 (which was a large painting called The Garden). Both works highlight the artist’s considerable ability as a plantsman and painter of the English garden. 111
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[cat.98]
Ethelbert White, RWS (1891-1972) Lynmouth, Devon Signed l.r.: Ethelbert White Watercolour over soft pencil, 26 by 33 cm (10 ¼ by 13 ins) Provenance: with the St George’s Gallery, Hanover Square c.mid 1920s
Executed in the early to mid-1920s. White's watercolours of this date often relate to or echo his pioneering work as a wood engraver. There is no recorded wood-engraving of Lynmouth but there are some compositional and technical comparisons to his wood engraving of Portofino from 1924 (see Hilary Chapman, Ethelbert White 1891-1972, Primrose 112
Hill Press, 2003, p.65, no.27). He also exhibited some linocuts of nearby Lynton in the 1950s, including The Tors, Lynton in 1953 (see Chapman, ibid, p.84,no.L14). The present work was at some time shown at St George’s Gallery, where White had a highly successful early exhibition in 1922, continuing to show there until its closure in 1932.
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[cat.99]
Norman Neasom, RWS (1915-2010) The Country House Signed and dated l.r.: Norman Neasom/58 Watercolour and gouache, 36 by 54 cm (14 ¼ by 21 ¼ ins)
The Worcestershire painter Norman Neasom was a prominent figure in the Birmingham Art scene in the mid twentieth century. As well as being a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists there, he was also a leading light in the Royal
Watercolour Society. Watercolour was his preferred medium and he developed a lyrical illustrative style which contains elements of surrealism as well as the modern Romanticism of artists like John Nash, Eric Ravilious and Felix Kelly.
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[cat.100]
Olga Lehmann (1912-2001) “Pierrot” - Design for a Drop Curtain, c.1934 Signed u.l..: Olga Lehmann Gouache, 23 by 32 cm (9 by 11 ½ ins)
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(a)
(b)
[cat.101]
Glynn Boyd Harte (1948-2003) Vaslav Nijinsky in "Jeux" by Debussy (a) Vaslav Nijinsky as Petrushka (b) Each signed l.c.: Glynn Boyd Harte Each watercolour over pencil, 33 by 23 cm (13 by 9 ins)
These two watercolours of the celebrated Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky were executed by Boyd Harte for the cover of a CBS Masterworks LP issued to coincide with a film on the life of Nijinsky, directed by Herbert Ross in 1980. They are both based on well-known photographs of Nijinsky in two of the most iconic roles he performed for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes: Petrushka from Igor Stravinsky’s ballet of the same name in 1911 and as a tennis player from the 1912 ballet Jeux, with music by Claude Debussy.
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[cat.102]
Albert Edward Halliwell (1905-1987) City Signed l.r.: A.E.Halliwell and inscribed Ideal Home Exhibition Gouache over pencil, 30 by 45 cm (12 by 17 ¾ ins)
This dramatic Art Deco design is for the Ideal Home Show, an exhibition that was devised by the Daily Mail and ran at the Olympia Exhibition Centre from 1908. The event was at the forefront of promoting modern architectural design and interiors, particularly in the 1920s when Halliwell made this painting. Halliwell, a noted designer of
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the period created work for London Transport, as well as a number of British Railway companies. He was a prominent teacher in London art schools from the 1930s, including Bromley and Beckenham, taking up a post at Camberwell School of Art in 1948.
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[cat.103]
Albert Edward Halliwell (1905-1987) Autumn Sale – Catwalk, 1927 Signed l.r.: A.E.Halliwell and inscribed under mount half size design for a poster advertising an Autumn sale of furs, October 1927 Gouache over pencil, 30 by 45 cm (12 by 17 ¾ ins)
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[cat.104]
John Minton (1917-1957) Destruction: A Bombed Street, c.1943 Pen and sepia ink, 20.5 by 35.5 cm (8 by 14 ins)
Minton's drawings of the Blitz were based on parts of East London the artist knew well including Wapping and Rotherhide, cityscapes where he witnessed the catastrophic results of German bombing. Minton was also influenced by the devastation subjects of Graham Sutherland which conjured up a powerful Neo-Romantic and hellish vision of life in the city.
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Frances Spalding has written: 'The pen-and-ink drawings and paintings he produced (at this time) sing the desolation of war. Though they evolved out of actual experience, he was not concerned with topographical accuracy, but with using what he saw to create a theatre of the soul, an arena in which to explore Kafkaesque feelings of wretchedness, guilt and alienation' (Frances Spalding, John Minton: Dance Till the Stars Come Down, Lund Humphries, 1988, p. 40)
HM-G
[cat.105]
John Minton (1917-1957) Portrait of Eric Verrico Verso: a portrait sketch in ink of Oscar Wood Pencil, 27 by 23 cm (10 ½ by 9 ins) Provenance: the estate of Elinor Bellingham Smith; John Moynihan
This intriguing double-sided drawing depicts two sitters who were important muses for Minton in the mid to late 1940s. Eric Verrico, who is frequently depicted in the similarly informal and languid pose as he is here, features in several of the artist’s finest male portraits, including one formerly in the collection of Muriel Belcher from c.1947-48 (with the Fine Art Society in 2020) and a group portrait which also included the distinctively spectacled Oscar Wood (who appears on the verso of this
drawing) (Portrait Group, 1945, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel). Verrico eventually joined the RAF in the late 1940s when he appears to have drifted from Minton. Frances Spalding wrote of him: “Eric Verrico was the one who most frequently posed, for, looking as if he had stepped out of a Caravaggio. He was the most beautiful of ‘Johnny’s Circus’.” Frances Spalding, John Minton: Dance Till the Stars Come Down, Lund Humphries, London. p.88.
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HM-G
[cat.106]
Paul Nash (1889-1946) Café Window, Toulon Squared for transfer Watercolour over pencil, 18 by 13.5 cm (7 by 5 ¼ ins) Provenance: Trustees of the Paul Nash estate; the Hamet Gallery Literature: Andrew Causey, Paul Nash, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1980, p.412, no.681
The present work was executed on a trip Nash made to the French Riviera in 1930. It forms part of a series of Café drawings made at this date which explore the effect of the mirror image. Most French Cafes in this era had mirrors in their interiors which according to Margot Eates “enabled (Nash) to explore the possibilities of the double image, since they served as both a background to objects in a room and a means of looking to the street outside with one’s back to it” (Margot Eates, Paul Nash, The Master of the Image, John Murray, 1973, p.45). There is a larger near-identical study to this work (Eates, ibid, pl.63) and a related nocturnal work often know as Night Piece, Toulon (Eates, ibid, pl.62). 120
HM-G
[cat.107]
John Nash, RA (1893-1977) November - In the Pub, for the “BBC Book of the Countryside” Pen and black ink, 28 by 16 cm (11 by 6 ½ ins)
This is one of a series of illustrations that John Nash made for the BBC Book of the Countryside in 1963. The book was based around a month by month survey of BBC programmes from the previous decade all of which related to the changing countryside (as well as sometimes – evidently – interiors). Nash was one of several contributors and submitted designs for a number of months, some of which were not used in the final publication. 121
HM-G
[cat.108]
John Nash, RA (1893-1977) The Flour Mill at Bures, Suffolk Signed l.l.: John Nash Watercolour over pencil on Ingres paper, 39 by 47 cm (15 ¼ by 18 ½ ins) Provenance: with the Goupil Gallery, London, probably in the 1920s
Bures lies on the River Stour, just over the Suffolk border and a few miles to the north of the house the Nashes would buy after the War at nearby Wormingford. Before moving to the area they would rent a house by the mill and it is possible the present work was painted from a viewpoint either at or close to that property. Unsurprisingly the mill appears in a number of pre-War works by the artist.
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HM-G
[cat.109]
John Nash, RA (1893-1977) The Garden Bench Signed l.r.: John Nash and with further inscriptions and squared for transfer Monochrome watercolour over pencil. 34.5 by 54.5 cm (13 ½ by 21 ½ ins)
The present work is a study for a recently discovered woodcut dating from the early 1920s now in the Victor Batte-Lay collection in Colchester. It is thought to depict a bench in the garden of Nash's then home at Meadle in Buckinghamshire.
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HM-G
[cat.110]
Thomas Hennell, RWS (1903-1945) Winter Landscape Signed l.r.: T.Hennell Watercolour over pencil, 27 by 35 cm (10 ½ by 13 ¾ ins)
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[cat.111]
John Piper, CH (1903-1992) Mattersey Priory, Nottinghamshire Signed l.r.: John Piper and inscribed with title and dated l.l.: Mattersey Priory/ 26.v.76 Watercolour over wax resist, pen and ink and pencil, 35 by 49 cm (13 ¾ by 19 ¼ ins)
Mattersey Priory is the ruin of a former Gilbertine monastery that stands to the east of the village of the same name next to the River Idle in Nottinghamshire. As well as the present painting, Piper took a dramatic photograph of the priory which also focuses on the bleak, windswept setting of the subject matter. The artist himself donated his negative for photograph to the Tate Archive in 1987 (inv.TGA 8728/27/26).
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HM-G
[cat.112]
Barbara Jones (1912-1978) “Berkshire” for the Shell Guides Signed and dated l.r.: Barbara Jones/1958 Watercolour, 37.5 by 47 cm (14 ¾ by 18 ½ ins)
Shell commissioned Jones to produce a design for the county of Berkshire for their Shell Shilling Guides, an ambitious project that challenged leading artists and designers to create whimsical pictures that captured the essence of counties of the United Kingdom. Although finally published in 1963, the existence of this recently discovered large preliminary watercolour suggests that work had begun on the idea back in 1958. Jones’s smaller
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finished design for “Berkshire” was sold as part of the Shell Collection of Modern British Paintings at Sotheby’s on 4th July 2002 (lot 114). Amongst the motifs representing the county are the famous black pig (the Berkshire) to the front left, the White Horse in the Berkshire Downs and Windsor Castle with the Thames (including its rowers and boat houses) below.
HM-G
[cat.113]
Barbara Jones (1912-1978) The Shell Grotto at Oatlands near Weybridge Signed and dated l.r.: Barbara Jones/1940 and inscribed with title (verso) Watercolour with gouache, 37 by 27.5 cm (14 ¾ by 10 ¾ ins) Literature: Barbara Jones, Follies and Grottoes, Constable & Co., 1974 (2nd Ed.), illustrated (full page) p.158
Jones’s caption for this watercolour in the second edition of Follies and Grottoes (op cit) reads as follows: “The main room of the Grotto at Oatlands Park, painted before demolition. The wooden cone on the floor had fallen from ceiling and shows the simple carpenters’ work that was the basis of the elaborate shell decoration…These are probably the Chinese chairs, made of bamboo, for which the Duchess of York embroidered the cushions.”
Jones lists the loss of the grotto (demolished in 1948) as a scandalous act of vandalism. She was fortunately able to visit it in her research for this book in 1940 when she made this watercolour – an important record of this extraordinary eighteenth century grotto interior
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HM-G
[cat.114]
Edward Bawden, RA (1903-1989) Diggers in the Quarry at Pengwern Signed l.r.: Edward Bawden Watercolour over pen and ink, 50.5 by 69 cm (20 by 27 ins) Exhibited: the Fine Art Society, London, Edward Bawden Seventy Fifth Birthday Exhibition, March 1978, no.21
One of three large watercolours of the vast quarry at Pengwern on the Welsh border that Bawden created in the later 1970s. The artist exhibited all three of these works at his seventy fifth birthday exhibition at the Fine Art Society in 1978.
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HM-G
[cat.115]
Walter Hoyle (1922-2000) The Budgerigars Signed and dated l.r.: Walter Hoyle/1956 Watercolour and gouache over pen and ink, 38.5 by 56.5 cm (15 by 22 ¼ ins)
The location, Sinclair Row, appears to have been a street in Aberdeen. Hoyle worked regularly in Aberdeenshire in the mid-1950s. In 1954 he created a poster for the Post Office Savings Bank, depicting the beach at Pennan in Aberdeenshire. Hoyle was a prominent member of the Great Bardfield group of artists from Essex, whose members (and fellow villagers) included Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden and Michael Rothenstein.
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HM-G
[cat.116]
Hubert Finney (1905-1991) A Seaside Still Life Signed l.l.: H.A.Finney Gouache with ink and watercolour, 44 by 60 cm (17 ¼ by 23 ½ ins)
Finney entered the Royal College of Art in the late 1920s where he became part of a circle that included Barnett Freedman and Percy Horton. Like many students there at this date he fell under the influence of Paul Nash who had taught design at the college a couple of years earlier. The present work almost certainly dates from the mid-1930s and is slightly reminiscent of Nash’s Avebury masterpiece Equivalents for the Megaliths from 1935 (now in the Tate), if somewhat less abstract in conception. It also reflects an increased interest in Surrealism in British art. The International Surrealism Exhibition took place in London in 1936 and went on to have profound effect on British art of the later 1930s.
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[cat.117]
Julian Trevelyan, RA (1910-1988) Mont Ventoux, 1975 The Artist’s Original Zinc Etching Plate, 47 by 35 cm (18 ½ by 13 ¾ ins) Provenance: Dame Elisabeth Frink
Trevelyan was head of the etching department at the Royal College of Art in the mid-1950s and early 1960s where his students included David Hockney and Norman Ackroyd. His original etching plates are rare. The etching with aquatint Mont Ventoux for which this plate is the source was executed in 1975 in an edition of 57 copies. A copy of the print is in the collection of the Tate Gallery, having been donated by the Waddington Galleries in 1977 (acc.no.3210). 131
HM-G
[cat.118]
Ben Nicholson, OM (1894-1982) Aegean, c.1967 Pencil, irregular sheet, mounted on prepared board, 38 by 28 cm (15 by 11 ins) (sheet only) Provenance: the artist’s studio; Winifred Nicholson and thence by descent; with Caroline Wiseman
A sailing trip that Nicholson took in the Aegean Sea in May 1967 resulted in a series of drawings and a suite of etchings Greek and Turkish Forms all of which were inspired by that part of the world. In common with other work from the mid-1960s, the prints in this set (to which the present drawing probably relates) examined Graeco-Roman architectural styles and motifs, with Nicholson lending his own abstract interpretation to them. The etching set was jointly published by Ganymed Original Editions Ltd and Marlborough Fine Art Ltd and Nicholson himself donated a set to the Tate in 1968 (acc.2009). It has been suggested that the drawing may depict the temple of Aphaia in Aegina which Nicholson visited in his trip to the area. 132
HM-G
[cat.119]
Dame Barbara Hepworth, DBE (1903-1975) Abstract – A Table Linen Design for Porthia Prints Signed with initials l.r.: BH Paper collage with watercolour, 31.5 by 45.5 cm Literature: Geoffrey Rayner et al., Textile Design: Artists' Textiles 1940-1976, Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 2014, p.93 for an example of the table linen in the grey colour
Porthia Prints, formed in the 1950s by the sculptor Denis Mitchell and his brother, was set up to promote the St Ives art scene commercially and produced a series of table mats that were sold by Heal & Son in London. The present work is Hepworth’s original design for the project and a rare example of her work in collage. Despite an impressive line-up of artists, including Hepworth, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon and William Gear, the project eventually suffered from supply issues and folded. The resulting linens are now very rare. The present design provided inspiration for a garden installation at the front of Tate Britain that coincided with the 2015 exhibition Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World, the simplicity and bold lines of this design particularly appealing to its curators. 133
GUY PEPPIATT Guy Peppiatt started his working life at Dulwich Picture Gallery before joining Sotheby’s British Pictures Department in 1993. He soon specialised in early British drawings and watercolours and took over the running of Sotheby’s Topographical sales. Guy left Sotheby’s in 2004 to work as a dealer in early British watercolours and since 2006 he has shared a gallery on the ground floor of 6 Mason’s Yard, more recently with Harry Moore-Gwyn and Nicholas Shaw. He advises clients and museums on their collections, buys and sells on their behalf and can provide insurance valuations. Guy Peppiatt Fine Art exhibit as part of Master Drawings New York every January as well as London Art Week in July and December. He has recently curated an exhibition of early British watercolours at Eton College. He has regular exhibitions in the gallery recent ones including ‘Bristol School of artists 1820134
1860’, ‘Charles Gore 1729-1807’, ‘Edward Lear 18121888’, ‘British Portrait and Figure Drawings’ and ‘John Linnell and his Contemporaries’. Sarah Hobrough has worked as a consultant for Guy Peppiatt Fine Art since 2017. Sarah has spent nearly 25 years in the field of British drawings and watercolours. She started her career at Spink and Son in 1995, where she began to develop a specialism in British watercolours of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 2002, she helped set up Lowell Libson Ltd, serving as co-director of the gallery. Since then, she has established a landscape design company, which she continues to run, alongside her art consultancy practice, and worked for Christie’s watercolour department for a number of years.
NICHOLAS SHAW Nicholas Shaw has over thirty years experience in the international art market working for the first half of that time as an auction house specialist before becoming an independent dealer in 2003. For nearly twenty years, he has dealt with paintings and drawings by British artists working far from home, whether engaged in adventure, exploration, commerce or scientific investigation. Works are by both professional and talented amateurs that were able to record at first-hand the places, people and
events that few others in Britain would have seen. Nick also deals with works by artists influenced by the style of these artists on their travels, notably those works by Indian artists for European patrons often termed ‘Company School’. Nick has worked with both institutional and private clients helping them acquire, disperse and care for important works of art. Additionally, he has acted as curator and contributor on a number of exhibitions and publications.
HARRY MOORE-GWYN Harry Moore-Gwyn studied at Oxford University and Christie’s Education before working as a graduate trainee at Sotheby’s London. He started dealing independently in 2000 and has established himself as a dealer in British Paintings, drawings and sculpture with a focus on the period 1870 to 1950 and with artists ranging from painters of the Camden Town Group (including Walter Sickert and Robert Bevan) to the Bloomsbury Group, John and Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland. He opened his first gallery in St James’s in 2018, moving to the Ground floor at 6 Mason’s Yard in 2021 in a space he now shares with Guy Peppiatt and Nicholas Shaw. His stock is also available for viewing at his home near Chalford in the western part of the Cotswolds. He has also
regularly exhibited in New York at the Shepherd W&K Galleries and taken stands at many of the leading British art and antique fairs. He has published numerous catalogues on twentieth century British art and worked with a number of artist’s estates amongst them Lowes Dalbiac Luard, James Boswell and Anthony Devas. His work as a curator has included the centenary show on Kenneth Rowntree at the Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden and Pallant House, Chichester, the catalogue for which was nominated for the Berger Prize for British Art History in 2016 and the first major retrospective on the painter Henry Lamb for a generation at Salisbury Museum in 2018 (later travelling to Poole Museum in 2019). His catalogue for this show, Henry Lamb: Out of the Shadows was published by Paul Holberton in 2018. 135
GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART
NICHOLAS SHAW THE ART OF EXPLORATION AND ADVENTURE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7930 3839 or +44 (0) 7956 968 284
Tel: +44 (0) 7734 059604
guy@peppiattfineart.co.uk
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www.peppiattfineart.co.uk
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HARRY MOORE-GWYN BRITISH ART Tel: +44 (0)7765 966 256 harry@mooregwynfineart.co.uk www.mooregwynfineart.co.uk
Ground Floor, 6 Mason’s Yard, Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BU Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm Evenings and weekends by appointment
Opposite page: Barbara Jones (1912-1978)
“Berkshire” for the Shell Guides [cat.112] Design: Sarah Garwood Creative, sarahagarwood@outlook.com Print: Zenith Print Group, enquiries@zenithprintgroup.com 136
BRITISH DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS
B R I T I S H D R AW I N G S A N D WAT E R C OL O U R S FR OM THE 18T H TO THE 20T H CENTURIES GUY PEPPIATT | NICHOLAS SHAW | HARRY MO ORE - GWYN
GUY PEPPIATT NICHOLAS SHAW HARRY MOORE-GWYN